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Bangalore – a brief overview

Famous as India’s IT hub, Bangalore offers a gentler introduction to India, for those put off by the colourful chaos of Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai. In Bangalore’s wide streets, British-era monuments stand shoulder to shoulder with office towers and modern shopping malls and relics from the city’s former life as the summer capital of the sultans of Mysore.

The city is more famous for food and shopping than tourist sights, but the city’s sprawling parks and gardens provide a welcome escape from the tropical heat, and trains run day and night to the palaces and temples of Mysore and Hampi and the beaches of Kerala. Come to Bangalore and ease your way gently into the Indian way of life.

Top 10 sights in Bangalore

Bangalore Palace

Said to be inspired by Windsor Castle in England, the lavish city palace of the Wodeyars of Bangalore offers a fascinating window onto the extravagant, and often eccentric lives of India’s ruling classes. The opulent state rooms are still crammed with fading antiques and royal portraits.

Vidhana Soudha

The official seat of the Karnataka state legislature, the Vidhana Soudha was constructed in grand Indo-Saracenic style just a few years after India gained its independence. The grand facade, constructed from local pink granite and topped by a series of towering onion domes, is a Bangalore landmark, but the interiors are only accessible with prior permission.

Tipu Sultan’s Palace

The summer escape of Tipu Sultan, who ruled large parts of southern India before falling in battle with the British in 1799, this handsome palace is set in elegant gardens near the Jama Masjid mosque. It’s not quite as outrageous as some of the sultan’s other palaces, but the main pavilion is lavishly decorated with frescoes and carved teak columns.

Lalbagh Botanical Garden

When Bangalore citizens need to escape the city crush, they come to Lalbagh Gardens for shady strolls beneath the trees and peaceful picnics among the ornamental flower beds. The garden was founded by the sultan Hyder Ali but massively expanded by the British, who constructed the Kew Gardens-style greenhouses at the heart of the gardens.

National Gallery of Modern Art

Bangalore’s most important gallery is worth a visit as much for its setting (in a grand mansion formerly used as a summer house by the sultan of Mysore) as for the impressive collection of art inside. The collection is split into works created before and after independence, charting India’s progress towards nationhood.

Iskcon Temple

The towering temple of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness offers a modernist take on the traditional Dravidian style of temple building, with a central pyramid flanked by gopurams (traditional temple spires). Inside, colourful displays explore the legends of Lord Krishna and the history of the Hare Krishna movement.

Basavani Gudi Temple

Bull Temple Road, Basavangudi 560004 Bangalore India Show on map

Opening times: Daily 0700-2030

Bangalore’s rainbow-coloured ‘bull temple’ is famous for its monumental statue of Nandi, the mount of Lord Shiva. Built in classic Dravidian style, the temple is thronged by devotees, who also pay homage at the nearby Dodda Ganapati temple, with a similarly monumental statue of Lord Ganesh.

Cubbon Park

Sprawling across 120 hectares in the centre of Bangalore, Cubbon Park was founded by the British as an escape from the city heat. Today, locals throng to this green expanse for romantic walks, family picnics or just to sleep in the cool, calm grounds. The park includes a small government museum and art gallery.

Attara Kacheri

Flanking Cubbon Park, the Karnataka High Court is one of Bangalore’s most eye-catching landmarks, built by the British in 1868 in the style of the grand civic buildings of Whitehall in London. Painted vivid red, the courthouse was marked for demolition in 1982, but was saved following a vigorous campaign by local residents.

St Mary’s Basilica

Bangalore’s most important church was constructed in 1875 in classic British colonial style. Every September, Christian pilgrims from across South India flock to the church to celebrate the Feast of St Mary, when an ancient statue of Mother Mary is paraded through the streets in a wooden chariot.

Flight and accommodation

Country information

Country overview

India is a beautiful and bamboozling place, where holy cows amble along the streets, bask on heavenly beaches

next to modern hotels and where ancient temples sit perfectly at home besides shiny new offices.

Geography

India shares borders to the northwest with Pakistan, to the north with China, Nepal and Bhutan, and to the east with Bangladesh and Myanmar. To the west lies the Arabian Sea, to the east the Bay of Bengal and to the south the Indian Ocean. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are Indian territory but lie off the coast of Thailand in the Bay of Bengal. Sri Lanka lies off the southeast coast, and the Maldives off the southwest coast.

The far northeastern states and territories are all but separated from the rest of India by

Bangladesh as it extends northwards from the Bay of Bengal towards Bhutan.

India is separated from the rest of Asia by mountain ranges, forest, and desert -the Himalayan mountain range in the north, the Thar Desert in the west and the Chin Hills and Patkai ranges in the east. The Indus River runs through the northern disputed territory of Jammu & Kashmir. The most sacred of rivers, the Ganges, is in the east.

General knowledge

Key facts

Population: 1208000359

Population Density (per sq km): 371

Capital: New Delhi.

Language

Hindi is the official language of India and, used by about 40% of the population, India’s most widely spoken. English is also enshrined in the constitution for a wide range of official purposes. In addition, 18 regional languages are recognised by the constitution. These include Bengali, Gujarati, Oriya and Punjabi, which are used in respective regions, and Tamil and Telugu, which are common in the south. Other regional languages include Kannada, Malayalam and Marathi. The Muslim population largely speaks Urdu.

Currency

Rupee (INR; symbol Rs) = 100 paise. Notes are in denominations of Rs1,000, 500, 100, 50, 20 and 10. Coins are in denominations of Rs5, 2 and 1, and 50, 25, 20, 10 and 5 paise. Note: The import and export of local currency is prohibited. Sometimes smaller vendors will not take bills larger than Rs 500. It is best to carry a range of rupee notes if you are shopping at bazaars and local markets.

Electricity

230-240 volts AC, 50Hz. Some areas have a DC supply. Plugs are of the round two- and three-pin type.

General business opening hours

Mon-Fri 0930-1730, Sat 0930-1300.

Public holidays

Below are listed Public Holidays for the January 2016 – December 2017 period.

Note

Only the secular holidays of Republic Day, Independence Day and Mahatma Gandhi’s Birthday are universally observed.

(a) Muslim festivals are timed according to local sightings of various phases of the moon and the dates given above are approximations. During the lunar month of Ramadan that precedes Eid al-Fitr, Muslims fast during the day and feast at night and normal business patterns may be interrupted. Some disruption may continue into Eid al-Fitr itself. Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha may last up to several days, depending on the region.

(b) Hindu festivals are declared according to local astronomical observations and it is not possible to forecast the date of their occurrence exactly.

Flight and accommodation

Restaurants in Bangalore

ListMap

With its colonial heritage and international IT industry, it should be no surprise to learn that Bangalore offers some of India’s best modern European cuisine, alongside richly spiced grills from North India and fragrant vegetarian curries from the south.

Note that chilli is used prodigiously in South Indian dishes; order a sweet lassi (Indian drinking yoghurt) on the side to douse the flames.

Flight and accommodation

Calendar of events

Karaga

21 – 30 April 2016

Venues: Various venues in Bangalore

This is a 10-day festival involving a colourful procession throughout the city.

Dussehra

3 – 12 October 2016

Venue: Various venues in Bangalore

This 10-day festival celebrates the victory of good over evil. It takes many different forms depending on the locally worshipped god, but in Bengaluru and Mysore it celebrates Rama’s victory over Ravana and includes theatre performances of Rama Lila, the Life of Rama.

Diwali

30 October – 3 November 2016

Venue: Various Venues in Bangalore

This is one of the biggest Hindu festivals. It marks Rama and Sita’s homecoming, and includes the lighting of lamps and firecrackers and the giving and receiving of sweets.

7 days forecast

Climate & best time to visit India

The weather is mainly hot most of the year with significant variations from region to region. The coolest weather lasts from around the end ofNovember to the beginning of March, with fresh mornings and evenings, and mostly sunny days. The really hot weather, when it is dry, dusty and unpleasant, is between March and June. Monsoon rains occur in most regions in summer anywhere between June and early October.

Western Himalayas: Srinagar is best from March to October; July to August can be cold and damp in winter. Shimla is higher and therefore colder in winter. Places like Gulmarg, Manali and Pahalgam are usually under several feet of snow from December to March and temperatures in Ladakh, which is a high-altitude desert, can be extremely cold. The mountain passes of Ladakh are accessible from July to October.

Northern Plains: Cities like New Delhi, Varanasi, Lucknow and Patna experience an extreme range of temperatures and are typically warm from April to mid-June, falling to almost freezing at night in winter between November and February. Summers are hot with monsoons between June and September.

Central India: Madhya Pradesh state escapes the very worst of the hot season, but monsoons are heavy between July

and September. Temperatures fall at night in winter.

Western India:November to February is most comfortable, although evenings can be fairly cold. Summers can be extremely hot with monsoon rainfall between mid June and mid September. Eastern India: Weather in states like Orissa (which is flood-prone) are defined by cooler weather from October to February, scorching heat from March to May and unavoidable drenching from the monsoons from June to October.

Southwest: The most pleasant weather is from November to March. Monsoon rains fall anywhere between late April and July. Summer temperatures are not as high as Northern India although humidity is extreme. The coast benefits from some cooling breezes. Inland, Mysore and Bijapur have pleasant climates with relatively low rainfall.

Southeast: Tamil Nadu experiences a northeast monsoon between October and December and temperatures and humidity are high all year. The hills can be cold in winter.

Northeast: March to June and September to November are the driest and most pleasant periods. The rest of the year has extremely heavy monsoon rainfall.

Flight and accommodation

Shopping in Bangalore

Key Areas

MG Road is the city’s shopping hub, attracting huge crowds of shoppers day and night. Dotted along the strip are some of the city’s best souvenir emporiums, selling arts and crafts from across India.

Markets

The city’s bustling Krishnarajendra Market (Kalasipalyam) is fast-paced and frenetic, selling everything under the sun, from saffron to saris. The rainbow-coloured flower market in the central atrium offers one of the city’s best photo opportunities.

Shopping Centres

With Bangalore’s rising fortunes, international-style malls are opening up all over the city, packed with global brands. The most glamorous address is UB City on Vittal Mallya Road, with plenty of India designer labels among the international fashion names. Also in the centre, the Garuda Mall on Magrath Road has lots of famous names. There are more malls in the rapidly expanding Whitefield area, east of the centre.

Flight and accommodation

Traveller etiquette

Social Conventions

The traditional Hindu greeting is to fold the hands, tilt the head forward and say namaste. Indian women generally prefer not to shake hands. All visitors are asked to remove footwear when entering places of religious worship. Most Indians also remove their footwear when entering their homes; visitors should follow suit.

Many Hindus are vegetarian and many, especially women, do not drink alcohol. Most Sikhs and Parsis do not smoke. Women are expected to dress modestly and men should also dress respectfully. Women should not wear short skirts and tight or revealing clothing, although there is a more casual approach to clothing in Goa.

Flight and accommodation

Health

Food & Drink

Water for drinking, brushing teeth or making ice should first be boiled or otherwise sterilised. Milk is often unpasteurised and should be boiled. Avoid dairy products likely to have been made from non-boiled milk. Only eat well-cooked meat and fish. Do not eat salads, vegetables should be cooked and peel your own fruit. Don’t eat street vendor food unless it is piping hot. Tap water is not safe to drink, rely on bottled water which is widely available. However, do check the seal on bottled water.

Other Risks

Vaccinations are sometimes advised for hepatitis A and B, Japanese encephalitis, tuberculosis (for infants), polio and typhoid. Dengue and malaria are both caused by mosquito bites and are prevalent in hot and humid conditions. There are occasional, seasonal outbreaks of dengue fever. Travellers should vigilantly protect themselves against mosquito bites.

Even seasoned travellers may find themselves at the mercy of travellers’ diarrhoea. Hygiene standards vary. If possible, travel around with soap or antibacterial gel in order to clean your hands. The culprits that cause diarrhoea are often the microorganisms found in local water supplies, so decrease your chances by drinking bottled or boiled water. You can have alcoholic drinks but say no to ice. Drink carbonated beverages or those with only boiled water like coffee and tea.

Carry rehydration solution packets, Pepto Bismol or Imodium in case you are afflicted. Before your travel, seek medical advice about what to take for self-treatment.

Wear adequate sunscreen or do like the locals to beat the heat and avoid the sun between 1200 and 1600 when it is at its harshest; don a cotton kameez to keep covered and cool.

Note: All visitors aged between 18 and 70 years of age wishing to extend their visa for one year or more are required to take an AIDS test.

Flight and accommodation

Visa & Immigration

IATA Travel Centre

The IATA Travel Centre delivers accurate passport, visa and health requirement information at a glance. It is a trusted, centralized source for the latest international travel requirements. The IATA Travel Centre is the most accurate source available because it is based on a comprehensive database used by virtually every airline, and information is gathered from official sources worldwide, such as immigration and police authorities.